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166 Scapegoat 6 DF / NAFTA 167 The Obstinacy of Tepito

Notes 6 (eds.), From the 12 Through History Yutsil Cruz Hernández and Alfonso Hernández is often the case, while the State sought to Both goals were Calpulin to the The Reichmann and Culture (Ox- 1 enshrined in the Zocalo: Essays Brothers are perhaps ford and New York: eliminate racial tensions by trying to convert Saskia Sassen, The project’s promotional on the History of best known for Oxford University indigenous peoples into mestizos (creoles), Global : New materials, and later the Public Sphere their development Press, 2009). York, London, reiterated as the cen- in Mexico (Mexico of Canary Wharf in racial and status differences in fact deepened. and Tokyo (Princ- trepiece of an August City: Instituto Mora, London. For more on Nowadays, Tepito is no longer located in eton University Press, 2001 plan intended 2005). the evolution of the The 2001); Peter Marcuse to “rescue” Mexico’s firm’s global strategy, the periphery and is part of ’s and R. Von Kempen historic centre, which 9 and its investments Historic Downtown. It is a neighbourhood (eds.), Globalizing in 1987 was declared For more on the long- in Mexico, see : A New a national historic term impact of the Michael Brick, “A Obstinacy whose history is intimately linked to the Spatial Order site by UNESCO. earthquake, both in Developer Back From territory and to the use of the street as a (Massachusetts, terms of the built en- the Brink,” New Blackwell Publishers, 7 vironment and social York Times, 21 marketplace. Its inhabitants’ identification 2000). Before 1997, Mexico movements and local February 2003. processes have adapted in response to political City’s mayor was politics, see Diane E. of Tepito 2 appointed by the Davis, “Reverbera- 13 changes, agreements, and negotiation, among John Rennie Short President, who stood tions: Mexico City’s Of course, Carlos In Mexico, even those who have never visited neighbours, , and municipal and and Yeong-Hyun Kim, at the pinnacle of a 1985 Earthquake and Slim also had his Globalization and regime dominated the Transformation of own agenda. In the neighbourhood of Tepito would testify to State authorities, who have gradually changed the City (London: by one-party rule. the Capital,” in Law- return for supplying its stigmatization. It is typical to introduce it the uses and meanings of public space. The Longman, Ltd, 1999). After 1997, citizens rence Vale and Tom revenues for the “res- slowly became more Campanella (eds.), cue” of the historic as one of the most dangerous places in Mexico case of the cult of (Holy Death) 3 involved: first in The Resilient City centre, a project that City, to link it to crime, and to posit it as the illustrates this. Unlike the Virgin of Guadalupe, R. L. Wei Pizarro consultative councils, (Oxford and New included a repaving and T. Banerjee, and later through York: Oxford Univer- of city streets, Slim place where “everything illegal” can be bought “la flaquita” (the skinny one) does not “Agencies of Glo- democratic mayoral sity Press, 2004). was able to install in its famous .1 This discourse is perform miracles, but residents ask paros balization and Third and city council elec- phone lines for his World Urban Form: tions. In this context, 10 Telmex corporation. based on fear and frequently disseminated in favours) of her, to resolve any given aspect of A Review,” Jour- Mexico City urban One also should the media. Eduardo Nivón explains that the their lifes: money, work, marriage, etc. Such nal of Planning development policies not underestimate 14 Literature 18, no. became increas- political opposition. For more on Giuliani, sense of belonging to a place is cultivated in the phenomena have, constructed unique cultural 2 (November 2003): ingly tied to partisan Even with Camacho his connection to imaginary, and that “it is developed on the basis forms that selectively forget and/or remember 11–130. See also political struggles as advocate, his ca- López Obrador, and Shahid Yusuf and between the Par- pacity to implement the role that enhanc- of sharing a symbolic universe amongst traditional customs, while incorporating other Weiping Wu, Local tido de la Revolución programs without ing public security us and the others.”2 The neighbourhood local features that transcend both the colonial Dynamics in an Democrática (PRD), public approval was downtown played in Era of Globaliza- Partido Revolu- on the decline. This downtown redevel- of Tepito, due to its location and origins, past and the fixed relationships between the tion: Twenty-First cionario Institu- owed to the fact that opment, see Diane embodies “the Other” in Mexico. The category subaltern and the hegemonic. Century Catalysts cional (PRI), and the in the aftermath of E. Davis, “El Factor for Development Partido Acción earthquake-induced Giuliani: delincuencia, “dangerous” is itself woven in with the notion The neighbourhood has managed to preserve (New York: Oxford Nacional (PAN). social mobilization la ‘cero tolerancia’ en of social class, and figured as early as the its identity and remain within its own territory, University Press, and dissatisfac- el trabajo policiaco y 2000). 8 tion with the PRI in la transformación de sixteenth century after the first traza divided while at the same time, it exists as a product

For more, see Diane Mexico City, local la esfera pública en Mexico City, when the centre was destined for of, academic study and as part of the collective Cruz Hernández and Alfonso Yutsil 4 E. Davis, Urban Le- governance had been el centro de la ciudad Jordi Borja and viathan: Mexico reformed, and an de México,” Estu- the Spanish and the periphery for the Indians. imaginary; moreover, los tepiteños (whose Manuel Castells, City in the Twen- elected city council dios Sociológicos The castes and conditions for the “uncultivated” who come from Tepito) are strongly tied to Local and Global: tieth Century now had an oppor- 25, no. 75 (Septem- Management (: Temple tunity to weigh in on ber–December 2007): were also defined then, along with the living social movements. In other words, tepiteño of Cities in the University Press, major urban projects. 639–683. areas for precarious workers who had not identity functions politically, as an attitude of Information Age 1994); Diane E. Davis, (London: Earthscan “Contending Plan- 11 15 learned a trade, thieves, and criminals. This logic resistance. At first, its inhabitants sought to Publications, 1997), ning Cultures and the For more on the Al- For more on the perpetuated class segregation by way of zoning, identify themselves as tepiteños to defend the 374. Built Environment ameda project and difficulties of rede- in Mexico City,” in how community veloping historic and was accentuated throughout the city’s neighbourhood against real estate capitalism, 5 Bishwapriya Sanyal organization stalled properties, and the industrialization and modernization periods. and quickly, the tepiteño identity became When I mention (ed.), Compara- large development struggles under- Mexico City, I am re- tive Planning plans, see C. Marti- taken by Mexico City During the alleged stage of progress and affirmative. ferring to the Distrito Cultures (New nez Leal de la Ma- authorities to enable modernization in the 1950s,3 most of Tepito’s Tepito works as the hinge with perimeter A Federal, or Federal York: Routledge, corra, Innovative such permissions, see 4 District, which holds 2005); and Diane E. Community Proj- Diane E. Davis, “From population lacked economic resources of the City’s Historic Downtown, and yet it approximately eight Davis, “In Search of ects and Their Avenida Reforma to and services, and the neighbourhood was appears to be segregated from it. Informal million residents and the Public Sphere: Role in the Urban the Torre Bicentena- is administered by an Local, National, and Development of rio: The Clash of ‘His- considered to be full of delinquents. At the commerce dominates the area: the elected mayor (tech- International Influ- Mexico City (PhD tory’ and ‘Progress’ time, racial mixing was promoted in the official uses the streets every day except Tuesdays, nically, the “Goberna- ences in the Planning diss., Oxford Brookes in the Making of dor del Distrito”). of Downtown Mexico University, 1998). Modern Mexico City,” national imaginary, in order to agglomerate when the merchants take their day off. There City, 1910–1950,” in in Linda A. Newson the Mexican population under the concept of have been many transformations in housing Pablo Piccato and and John P. King Cristina Sacristan (eds.), Mexico City a single “race” within a nation. However, as and commerce. The areas’ inhabitants have 168 Scapegoat 6 Mexico DF / NAFTA 169 The Obstinacy of Tepito decreased with recent land use changes in the zone, as warehouses have replaced many homes. Today, ambulantaje (itinerant selling) is an important source of income, as well as culturally significant for many people. Tepito has a population of over 5,000 distributed across 60 blocks, and on Mondays through Saturdays, the famous market covers approximately 50 of them. On Sundays, the sale of antiques and prevails, and at least 1,500 additional stands are added, expanding the market some 12 blocks more; at night, it is reduced to 10 blocks, with about 850 merchants. In Tepito, there are also four markets and Lorena Wolffer and Carlos Aguirre, Testimonios de Tepito, 2010. very close to it, in La Lagunilla, another three, with 2,600 tenants in total. The commercial live cheaply on the periphery, crowded in small activities of this huge tianguis represent rooms with high ceilings where mezzanines 15,450 formal and informal sales points, drawing are often built in order to maximize space. a daily influx of approximately 22,000 wholesale This kind of housing, organized around a large buyers and customers. They are there to common patio, is called a vecindad, and buy new, used, recycled, imported, pirated, and the proliferation of vecindades gave Tepito an Archivo Centro de Estudios Tepiteños, Tianguis de Tepito, ca. 1970 stolen clothes, shoes , household appliances, urban dimension that distinguished it from the and electronic gadgets. rest of the city. Tepito’s importance can also urban expansion in Mexico City; this is when isolated borough, and he describes poverty The word tepitoyotl, “small thing,” has be attributed to its geographical location, the Tepito’s population expanded into the Morelos as a sub-culture and as a mode of life to do with the size of this neighbourhood in character of its inhabitants, and its long and neighbourhood (known as Violante) and perpetuated over generation, the result of the comparison to nearby Tlatelolco.5 For most storied history.“ Barrio (borough) is different other zones peripheral to downtown, such as adaptation and reaction to marginalization. people this means that Tepito was the last from colonia (neighbourhood or gated Doctores and Santa María la Ribera. Leisure In actuality, however, tepiteños have long neighbourhood with an indigenous character, community), which is a word used in more options in this area developed as another incorporated elements from hegemonic culture and the first marginal urban neighbourhood. affluent areas of the city. For tepiteños, their aspect of everyday life, generating public and in order to tailor them for consumption by

According to Guadalupe Reyes and Ana borough operates at an urban scale that both leisure spaces like “night centers, pulquerías subaltern classes, demonstrating a capacity not Cruz Hernández and Alfonso Yutsil Mantecón, however,6 this assertion does not instantiates and preserves their roots, identity, (pulque bars), bars, restaurants, taquerías to remain isolated, but rather adapt over time. consider the role of the Spanish urban and culture. (taco restaurants) and lunch-places. Sites began This peculiarity has allowed Tepito to remain traza (urban design), which marginalized From the mid-nineteenth century until the to be distinguished by the people who used relatively in sync with global market processes. the indigenous populations when Colonial beginning of President Porfirio Día’s regime them.”8 It was thus during this period that the It would thus be a mistake to define tepiteño Mexico was founded. Tepito is also considered (1877), the north of the city was heavily re- stereotyping of Tepito began. culture as unique, because both hegemonic and to be the place where the last Mexican tlatoani structured: it was enlarged and thus included Most of the vecindades in Tepito were subaltern cultures have given rise to the place. (chief), Cuauhtémoc, lost his last battle and sections of downtown, amongst them the built during Díaz’s regime (1877–1911), and By 1911, the poor quality of life was not was made prisoner near what is today the neighbourhoods such as La Bolsa, created in originally conceived to be used as hostels only reflected in the type of housing in the intersection of Constancia and Tenochtitlán 1870, followed by Díaz de Leó and by Violante, that would lodge travelers arriving from the borough, but also by the lack of basic services. streets, where one can read a sign that states: “created in 1882 by priest Juan Violante in provinces in order to sell their merchandise Tepito was a sordid region, a neighbourhood “Tequipehuecan” (place where slavery began). the borough of Tepito.” 7 Tepito thus gradually in the city. These were gradually transformed with a bad reputation, where it did not matter Here emperor Cuauhtemoctzin was made ended up unifying different neighbourhoods, into permanent housing. Oscar Lewis’ well- if the population was degraded or damaged. prisoner on the afternoon of August 13, 1521.” and in spite of the territorial divisions caused known novel, Los hijos de Sánchez Boroughs came to be absorbed as the city grew, Since it came to be the capital of an by the new arrangements, its inhabitants (Sánchez’s Children) portrays the difficult and as previously peripheral zone, were added to independent nation, Mexico City has faced learned to consider themselves as tepiteños. precarious life of the Sánchez family, who lived urban conglomeration. Differences within the housing shortages due to lack of space for social The period between 1860 and 1890 in a vecindad known as Casa Blanca. He city were accentuated as it grew, and Tepito housing. As a result, people coose to constituted a historical moment of intense presents Tepito as a subaltern, marginal, and was increasingly inhabited by the working 170 Scapegoat 6 Mexico DF / NAFTA 171 The Obstinacy of Tepito class, whose poverty ended up generating other allotted spaces were not large enough and new transformation of Tepito revalorized space problems in the area, thus earning Tepito the sales fell, so salespeople returned to the streets. once more and significantly increased the value title of the “tough borough.” In 1972, itinerant merchants without a fixed of the streets through their commercial use. In the 1920s, Tepito attracted many place gained official support to continue with By the beginning of the 1980s, neighbourhood tradespeople, and migrants from places like their trade. In 1976, there was a second influx and association leaders acquired and arrived en masse. of tradespeople and merchants to Tepito from increasing power, and even collected fees Commercial activity in the zone had not yet Guanajuato; this led to the appearance of family for each sales point in the tianguis; certain acquired the scale it would achieve later on, workshops that crafted leather goods, and collective organizations suffered from there was a food market in the Fray Bartolomé craftspeople and merchants from Tepito began corruption, and individual interests prevailed. de las Casas plaza, but few other retail or to form organizational systems, which would During these years, cocaine emerged as wholesale businesses. After 1940, when the later become the backbone of resistance to a significant good in these markets, with boroughs of Violante, La Bolsa, Díaz de León, proposed changes to the area. Video still. Dos caras del Silenci, Iván Edeza, 2009. attendant social consequences. As Lourdes and El Rastro were integrated to form Morelos, In the 1970s, new urban projects started Ruiz, a saleswoman, explains: “Tepito got commercial activity intensified, and small to radically reorganize the city. A significant fucked when Doña Blanca [Snow White, stands flourished on Aztecas, Caridad, and change was planned for Tepito, as the area was or Cocaine] came to beat the shit out of her Tenochtitlán streets. There, the ayateros or divided by the construction of three new urban dwarfs.” A small group of merchants emerged cambiadores (clothing merchants) would axes: one North along Ignacio López Rayón spontaneously, driven by their concern for sell clothes and second-hand objects that they and Héroe de Granadita, another east along addicted youths who frequently committed exchanged for molasses in middle-class areas. Avenue Del Trabajo, and another North along crimes. This is how the “Comisión del 40” The demand for used objects grew during World Manuel González. These roads fractured the (located at Tenochtitlán 40) emerged to War II and commercial activity continued to neighbourhood and made local developments organize an array of activities such as medical intensify immediately afterwards. incredibly challenging. In addition, these new services, legal assistance, and workshop, for The streets themselves began to be used plans favoured commercial land use over young people. The organization then extended for trade, and in 1956 three markets were built housing, which was a cause of some local its activities to collaborate with the City’s in order to house the merchants, as itinerant concern. These urban transformations, the Government Housing Restructuration Program. commerce was forbidden: one for food, another expansion of the tianguis, and the success Soon after, the “Comisión del 40” united for shoes, and a third for used goods. But the of fayuca (goods smuggled from the US) under the name “ Neighbours’ Association,” and by 1974 there were 350 organized homes who succeeded in defending the neighbourhood from government projects

and real estate speculation. By mid-1982, Cruz Hernández and Alfonso Yutsil there were about 6,000 itinerant tradespeople organized in 21 associations. As is always the case, these alliances between neighbours Natalia Alonzo Romero-Lanning. Jardín vecindari de Jerónimo and merchants came to the attention of Hagerman, Vecindad Casa Blanca, 2012. politicians so that the social movement was affected by political partisanship; by 1990, created yet another Tepito. According to there were 29 associations linked to the PRI, Georgina Sandoval, Tepito and Morelos are the ruling Institutional Revolution Party. exemplary cases of neighbourhoods organizing What started as a movement of solidarity themselves in order to resist the new projects. amongst neighbours and merchants was thus There formed 36 cultural, social and political transformed into a form of power tied to organizations. [Tepito’s] inhabitants found a the government. The management of way to enable for themselves all the provisions information, external contacts, and proposals needed for everyday survival, create their own for action ended up being controlled by the defense mechanisms, reappropriating space organizations’ leaders, which exacerbated in a way that everything that they need, is corruption among the unions, bringing the Archivo Centro de Estudios Tepiteños, Plazuela de Tepito, vista poniente, ca. 1920 available in the zone.9 As a consequence, this formerly collective interests into crisis. 172 Scapegoat 6 Mexico DF / NAFTA 173 The Obstinacy of Tepito

schools, markets, sports facilities, services, and Notes 7 María Dolores The 1985 earthquake was also a major vital spaces of identification. 1 Morales, “La justification for the re-development of the area. For tepiteños, the tianguis, aside from Market, from the expansión de la Náhuatl tianquiztli, Ciudad de México: The social fabric was severely damaged and the being their main economic compass, operates market or plaza, and El caso de los quality of life greatly reduced, which led to a as a quotidian social against the tiamiqui, to sell. fraccionamientos,” This practice is still Ciudad de process of gentrification that sought to displace powerful crime industry and its delinquent alive in Mexico City México: Ensayo the original population in order to significantly Fordism. Emboldened by its location and as exercised by the de construcción tiangueros de una historic, increase the value of the land and attract a history, Tepito is a neighbourhood that resists (Mexico: INAH, 1978, new population with greater income and social through informal commerce and creates its own 2 191.) Eduardo Nivón,”Los status. Just prior, however, and more significant, sense of belonging; it feeds on its obstinacy and barrios en la ciudad 8 was the redesignation of the downtown core, remains in its native place, nourished by the sap de masas,” in La Armando Palomo, Ciudad y sus “La política urbana including Tepito. After the Templo Mayor ruins from its genealogical nopal (cactus). Tepito barrios, ed. José. y el futuro de los were discovered in 1978, the area was named functions as a socioeconomic laboratory that Lui. Lee and Cels. barrios,” La ciudad Valde (México: UAM, y sus barrio “Mexico City’s Historic Downtown” by a Monumento a Tenochtitlán 40, Colectivo Bulbo, 2008 resisted the ruinous processes of the neoliberal 1994), 17. (Mexico: UAM, 1994), presidential decree two years later. Indeed, the system. Because Tepito learned to mix local 292. 3 most important collateral changes in the last not all of its merchants still live there. Shoe culture with its street economy, it has not Specifically, in 1957, 9 two decades have been undertaken through production has almost disappeared because allowed itself to be entirely “scaled down,” but four public markets Georgina Sandoval, were built as the “Añoranza y the “Rescuing Historic Downtown Program,” the new types of housing do not allow for through self-sufficiency solves its own problem, street tianguis was actualidad por la officially initiated in 1990. It has been executed family workshops. Indeed, some of the extant dismissing governmental urban solutions, it dismantled, but only casa y la ciudad,” a year later it was La ciudad y sus with public resources in collaboration with workshops are anthropological treasures, affirms its own life through its vocations of back on the streets barrio, (Mexico: the private sector, especially entrepreneur although street commerce is still very common. crafts and commerce. In Tepito, there are still and had begun to UAM, 1994), 253. grow. Carlos Slim, who funded the Centro Histórico Characterized as part of the global market, 15,450 businesses that represent more than Foundation, which acquired many of the area’s Tepito had already been North Americanized 5,000 tepiteños who make a living every day, 4 Mexico City’s Historic buildings. Another similar institution, Mexico before NAFTA due to the great fayuca boom submerged in their own histories. Downtown encom- City’s Centro Histórico Trust Fund (FCHM), of fake or smuggled goods in the 1980s and passes an area of nine square kilometres originally created as a private entity, was 1990s, and all the pirate CDs and DVDs as well divided into two transferred to the government when the leftist as chinaderas products that began to be perimeters: A and B; A delimits the first PRD (Democratic Revolution Party) officially took imported from . The global aspect of Tepito square with the most power of the city in 2001. is not only a phenomenon that affected it from buildings and public spaces that have Due to the increasing prominence of the outside, but a result of internal ruptures that been declared part

Historic Downtown designation, a considerable led the neighbourhood and its inhabitants to of the patrimonial Cruz Hernández and Alfonso Yutsil heritage; B defines number of itinerant tradespeople located in the carry out complex relations of recognition and the outer limits of area’s “first” square were displaced, beginning legitimation over and over again. Historic Downtown where there are some in the early-to-mid-2000s, putting pressure In Tepito, the informal market prevails, con- historically significant on the merchants of Tepito to accommodate tinuing with its ancestral heritage, articulated sites. them. In response, the local government historically in an originary borough—authentic 5 intervened: taking away the merchants stands and rough by birth. The area still lies under the Elena Enríquez Fuentes, Imagen from the street, and installing surveillance mark of Xipe-Totec, the flayed god and patron of y espejo: Los cameras. , then Mexico City’s commerce, to whom the streets themselves pay barrios de la ciudad de México mayor, also expropriated a major housing unit homage, with their tubular structures covered (México: Praxis, —40 Tenochtitlán Street—arguing that illegal with canvas that resembles his skin. Tepito’s en- 2010), 131. activities were taking place such as piracy and ergetic potential still works structurally as a rhi- 6 drug trafficking. As a result all the inhabitants zome, articulating poles with concentrations of Guadalupe Domínguey and Ana where evicted from their homes. employment and services, nodes that integrate Rosa Mantecón, Throughout this turbulent recent history, different media and routes for free mobility, cor- Los usos de la identidad barrial: Tepito’s population has diminished and ridors with streets and places connected to the Tepito 1970 diversified; its inhabitants no longer solely rest of the borough and the city it remains the –1984, (México: UAM, 1993), 32. make a living by selling in the tianguis, and tapete barrial (the borough’s carpet), with